The present invention concerns thermoforming apparatus, particularly apparatus including tooling which trims the thermoformed items from the selvage while they are still in the mold. This process is used for manufacturing such products as plastic cups, with several dozen cups formed from a single sheet which has been first preheated in an oven. After trimming, the cups are ejected into a stacker-counter.
The molds and trim punch and dies tooling are disposed on upper and lower tooling plates mounted to upper and lower press platens.
In one version of this machine, the lower platen is pivotally mounted to be able to be tilted out to position the lower tooling plate to be tilted outwardly from the machine, enabling the formed items to be ejected into the stacker.
The tooling plates are quite massive and much labor and time are required to change over tooling to produce a different item. This is particularly true of the lower tooling plate in machines with pirated lower platens since it is difficult to orient the plate in the tilted position necessary to be mounted to the lower platen when using an overhead crane.
The upper tooling plate has been removed by bolting auxiliary rails onto support rails in the machine and rolling the upper tool plate out onto these rails for lift off by a crane. This requires installation and removal of the auxiliary rails with every tooling change.